


Lucky Nightmares

by undying_lilies



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: (even gives one), (spoiler she gets one), AU belongs to the wonderful toxikku on tumblr!, Angst, Comfort, Dadstone AU, Family Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Nightmares, lena needs a hug, mentions of The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck and Shadow War, post-season one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:53:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28179417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undying_lilies/pseuds/undying_lilies
Summary: Lena has nightmares about the Other Bin incident and Gladstone tries his best to comfort her.She wishes he would get some sleep once in a while, though.
Relationships: Gladstone Gander & Lena (Disney: Ducktales)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 26





	Lucky Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> this is just a lil one-shot for the fantabulous Dadstone AU (created by Toxikku on Tumblr and it is possibly the BEST thing ever??), where Gladstone adopts Lena and basically becomes her dad. It's beautiful and amazing and y'all should check out the creator's Tumblr!!

Running. 

Panting. 

_ Can’t give up. Can’t let her take Webby. _

Down the halls of the Other Bin. Skidding to a stop before the entrance of That Room.

_ Can’t let her take me. _

_ Her _ face, looming in the shadows. 

The shadows everywhere. 

_ Can’t  _ **_save_ ** _ Webby. _

The Webby puppet, dangling from invisible strings and dancing before her face. 

_ Can’t can’t can’t can’t CAN’T CAN’T CAN’T - _

~

Lena woke up screaming. 

Immediately there was a CRASH and an  _ “ow” _ from the next room over. Gosh  _ darn it  _ \- she’d woken him up again. She immediately dove under her blankets on the couch, partly because she wasn’t too keen about the shadows that covered the room . . . and partly because she  _ hated _ it when she woke him up.

So she lay curled up under the comfort of her blankets, trembling, as footsteps entered the living room. 

“Lena?” a sleepy yet alert voice called out. 

She didn’t say anything. 

The footsteps started up again and stopped right before her couch. Lena turned on her side - tears already streaked down her face, no matter how much she tried to wipe them away. 

She didn’t like crying. Unfortunately, it usually came with nightmares. 

And she’d had those all too often lately. 

Her blankets got pulled back a bit. He’d turned on the lights, which made her wince when they reached her eyes - in response, she grabbed her covers and put them back over her head.

“Lena.” His voice was soft. “Is everything okay?”

She still didn’t say anything. 

There was a beat of silence. Then the couch’s middle sank a bit as he sat down. 

A few more seconds of silence passed.

Her blankets were pulled back again, and this time she didn’t do anything to stop it. The fresh, cool air of the living room - compared to the stuffy air under the blankets, it was incredibly refreshing - hit her face. 

And there was Gladstone, sitting on the couch beside her and her pile of blankets and looking concerned. 

He dropped the blankets back on her. “What happened?” he said gently. 

“Nothing,” Lena muttered, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. “Go back to sleep.”

“It was clearly something if you’re crying.” 

Yet another moment of silence swayed in the air for a bit. 

Gladstone leaned back in defeat. “Alright,” he said. “I won’t make you tell me.” Then he paused. “But it might feel good to talk it out.”

Lena slumped against her pillows. “It was just a nightmare,” she mumbled. 

Gladstone raised an eyebrow.  _ “Just _ a nightmare?” 

“. . . okay, maybe - maybe it was . . . a little more than one,” Lena admitted, hugging her knees to her chest. 

Gladstone absentmindedly nodded. 

“And . . . and it -” She hesitated. “It scared me.”

“Go on.” Gladstone pushed himself up a bit.

“It was - it was that time -” Lena swallowed past the lump in her throat. “With Webby and - and Aunt Ma - and  _ her _ -”

“Was it about the Shadow War?” Gladstone said, careful not to edge her on. 

She shook her head. 

“Something . . . before that?”

This time she nodded. 

He scooted closer to her. “Want to tell me?” 

“I -” A chill ran down her spine. “I don’t know -”

“You don’t  _ have _ to,” he reminded her.

Lena stared at her blankets for a minute or two.

Then she finally found her voice, but it was thick with emotion. “It wasn’t the Shadow War, it was -” She swallowed. “- it was the Other Bin.”

A tear, hot and wet, fell onto her blankets. Gladstone noticed, but he didn’t do anything about that - instead he put a comforting arm around her shoulders. 

“I’m sorry, kid,” he murmured. “That’s an awful one.”

“It  _ was.” _ Lena tried to wipe away her tears. “I thought - I thought Webby was  _ gone _ , and - and that Ma - that she had  _ destroyed her _ -”

A sob escaped her throat. She should’ve had nightmares about the Shadow War, not . . . not something that was long in the past. 

But it  _ had _ scared her, it really had. Webby and the triplets were her only friends, and if she betrayed Webby, or worse . . . Lena would never be able to face her family again.  _ Or _ the triplets. 

Thank her lucky stars she wasn’t stuck working for her aunt again. 

Neither of the ducks said anything for a minute or two - Lena stared at her blankets, tears streaming down her face, and Gladstone kept his arm around her shoulders. Eventually he wrapped her up in a hug; Lena didn’t protest, like she usually did. 

Instead she started crying into his shirt. 

Gladstone stroked her hair, not even complaining as what was most likely one of his favorite shirts got soaked. “There we go,” he said. “Let it all out.” 

Lena had had enough nightmares - and often - to know the routine: wake up, talk about the nightmare, eventually cry over it, and then go back to sleep in the early hours of the morning. And then sleep in a bit, since she usually needed her sleep. Tonight was no different, and she was already eager to finish this night’s particular routine.

Yet she didn’t  _ want _ to go to sleep. She was - she was afraid that if she closed her eyes . . . the nightmare would run its course again, and she’d have to revisit that same moment again. The same, terrible, horrible moment. Again.

The only solution, she decided? Stay up instead.

She still felt bad for Gladstone, though - every time  _ she _ had a nightmare and woke up, then  _ he’d  _ wake up and make sure she went back to sleep. And she appreciated it, but he needed sleep, too, as much as her. Or at this point maybe even  _ more _ than her. 

She vividly remembered asking him once how he managed to stay awake during the day. 

“A good, strong cup of coffee,” he’d said. “Or two, or three, or . . . you get the idea.”

Suddenly aware that she wasn’t crying anymore, she sat up and leaned away from Gladstone’s shirt. “Aren’t you tired?” 

Gladstone blinked. “Me?”

“Yes, you.” Lena sniffed, her nose all stuffy. “When was the last time you got a decent amount of sleep?” 

“Excuse me, Miss I’m-The-Parent-Now -” The corners of his mouth turned up in amusement. “- why are  _ you _ so concerned?”

“You just . . . never seem like you sleep.” Lena rubbed her arms awkwardly. 

“I  _ do _ get sleep.” Gladstone shook his head. “I was sleeping earlier.”

_ Before I woke you up, _ Lena thought.

“Yeah, but . . . I woke you up,” she said quietly.

“. . . oh.” In an instant Gladstone realized why she had asked the question, and he adjusted his seat on the couch before turning to face Lena. “No, don’t think of it like that. I just don’t want you to get . . .  _ traumatized?” _

Lena raised an eyebrow. “Fancy, are we?” 

“I mean - you never know?” he tried.

Then he sighed. “Look, Lena - I care about you. And yes, that seems sappy, but I want to make sure you’re alright after those nightmares. You know how some of them scare you.” After a second or two, he added, “Especially this one.”

Lena sighed and leaned back, resting her head on the top of the couch. 

“These nightmares are ruining my life,” she muttered. “I don’t need to wake up every night because of stupid nightmares.”

“Everyone has nightmares,” Gladstone pointed out. “I’ve had some. I’m sure your friends have.”

_ “You _ have? I thought you were so lucky you didn’t  _ get  _ nightmares.”

“Oh, no, I -” He rubbed the back of his neck. “- I still get nightmares.” 

Lena didn’t push him further.

“But if we’re talking about luck -” That earned Gladstone a deadpan expression from Lena, and he raised his hands in defense - “hey, I was only going to say that maybe it’s lucky you had a nightmare.” 

_ “Lucky?” _ Lena laughed bitterly. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t think nightmares about your best friend getting destroyed are  _ lucky.” _

“Well - no. But I don’t think we’re getting back to sleep anytime soon.”

That only made Lena feel worse. She wanted Gladstone to get  _ more _ sleep, not stay up even  _ later  _ because of her. 

“Your point?” Lena mumbled. 

“Right, my point -” Gladstone cleared his throat. “My point  _ is, _ it’s lucky because now we’re talking and neither of us feel tired. Right?” 

Lena folded her arms. “In the scenario where you  _ aren’t _ tired, sure.”

“Don’t worry about me, Lena, I’m fine,” he insisted.

But he yawned not a second later, and Lena gave him an “I-told-you-so” look.

He frowned. “Fine, I  _ am _ tired. But I’m not going to bed.”

Lena sank back into the couch. “I guess that’s fair.”

There was a beat of silence. Gladstone started to doze off beside Lena.

A truly terrifying thought entered her mind. What if - what if  _ she _ wasn’t - what if  _ she  _ \- 

“Gladstone?” Lena whispered. 

He sleepily rubbed his eyes, looking at her. “Hm?”

“Do you think . . . do you think she’ll come back?” 

Gladstone’s eyes widened - he didn’t need to ask to know who Lena meant. 

“Oh, Lena -” He put his arms around her again. “Well, what happened at the end of the Shadow War?”

Lena refused to cry again. “We took her powers away,” she whispered. 

“Right. So?” 

“But what if she comes back?” Now she couldn’t stop her train of thought. “What if she comes back - back for  _ me _ \- and wants to take me  _ away  _ -”

“She won’t,” Gladstone assured her, looking determined. 

“But how do you -”

“She’s  _ not  _ coming to get you,” he said. “If she does, then she’ll have to get through  _ me _ to get to you. And she won’t, because I’m lucky.” 

Tears welled up in Lena’s eyes again. 

“But -” She rubbed her eyes, her voice thick with emotion again. “But I don’t want you to risk your life for me -”

“Life?” Gladstone let out a laugh. “Lena, before I met you, I didn’t  _ have  _ a life.”

Lena burst into tears at that, and quick as a flash she wrapped her arms around him in an uncharacteristic hug. 

“Wow,” Gladstone joked, looking surprised but grinning, “must’ve done something good to get a  _ hug  _ from you.”

“Just - just shut up,” Lena sobbed, smiling despite the tears rolling down her face again, “and accept the hug, you dork.”

“Who are you calling a  _ dork?” _

“What, would you prefer  _ nerd _ instead?” 

“I’m sure  _ you _ wouldn’t mind it,  _ nerd.” _

Lena smiled, snuggling closer to him. “Thanks, Gladstone,” she said softly. 

Gladstone only smiled and rubbed the top of her head.

Then Lena’s eyes widened with an idea, and she grinned slyly. “Well,” she began, “if you’re not going back to bed, then I  _ guess _ you can stay up long enough to watch a movie.”

“I see what you’re doing.” Gladstone grinned back, nudging her. “Promise me you won’t fall asleep.”

“Promise me you  _ will.” _

“No promises on that one.” Gladstone got to his feet, heading over to their TV and picking up the remote. “I’ll find a movie and you find the snacks, gotcha?”

“Hot chocolate and cookies?” Lena jumped up from the couch and rushed into the kitchen, opening cupboards and grabbing things she needed. “Or  _ ooh _ \- those lemon bars Mrs. Beakley made us -” She opened the fridge and took out a tray of chilled lemon bars, grinning. “These instead of cookies.”

Gladstone grinned, too. If anything, Lena could tell he was immensely relieved that her mind was distracted from her nightmare - and in truth, she was, too. She  _ did _ look forward to the times when Gladstone (or she) decided they were both awake enough to watch a movie and gorge themselves on sugar and hot cocoa. 

Ten minutes later, a movie blared on the TV screen and the two ducks were snuggled next to each other on the couch, both holding steaming mugs of hot chocolate and a lemon bar. The adrenaline from the nightmare was already slowly leaving Lena’s body, and, combined with the hot chocolate, made her sleepy and content.

Before she knew it, she was fast asleep.


End file.
